The Last Human: Unlimited Power, Unlimited Beauties

“Then let’s begin.”

Rel barely finished speaking before I moved.

The arena floor exploded beneath my feet.

Stone cracked outward from where I had been standing, dust bursting behind me as Rampage and Berserker Aura launched my body forward with enough force to make normal running look like a strongly worded suggestion.

Rel stayed exactly where she was.

Still smiling.

That bothered me.

I crossed half the distance between us in a heartbeat.

Light flooded both of my fists.

“Light Buster.”

Golden-white energy wrapped around my hands.

One punch.

That was all I needed to test her defense.

Maybe two.

Possibly seventeen, depending on how annoying she decided to become.

I was almost within striking distance when the ground between us suddenly changed.

Black metal erupted upward.

Spikes.

Dozens.

They burst from beneath the arena floor in rapid succession, each one sharp enough to make my future children nervous on principle.

“Of course.”

I twisted sideways.

The first spike shot past my ribs.

A second came from below.

I shifted my hip.

Missed.

A third rose directly in front of me.

I punched it.

Light Buster detonated.

BOOM!

The spike shattered.

Black fragments scattered through the air.

Another emerged from my left.

Punch.

Explosion.

Gone.

Then three appeared together.

I jumped between two and smashed the third apart before it reached my chest.

Rel?

Still smiling.

Still standing exactly where she’d been.

I landed hard.

“You could’ve warned me the floor hated people.”

“I assumed you’d notice.”

“Eventually.”

Another spike erupted.

I sidestepped.

Then another.

Then another.

The attacks didn’t follow a simple pattern.

Some rose directly beneath me.

Others angled from the ground.

Several came in clusters meant to force me toward specific places.

That was Rel.

Even the spikes were playing mind games.

I broke another one with Light Buster.

Then suddenly felt heat above me.

My eyes snapped upward.

Rel was there.

Not running.

Not jumping from where I’d last seen her.

Just suddenly above me, descending with one leg raised.

Her foot burned.

Flames wrapped around it in a concentrated blaze.

I barely got my forearm up.

Her heel slammed into it.

The impact sounded like a cannon going off beside my ear.

Fire exploded across my arm.

The force traveled through my entire body.

My feet left the ground.

“Oh, come on!”

I flew backward.

Not stumbled.

Not slid.

Flew.

The arena became sky, stone, crowd, sky again as I spun through the air.

I twisted and tried to recover.

Too late.

Magic erupted overhead.

A massive circle appeared above the arena.

Black symbols spread through it.

The entire thing stretched across a huge portion of the sky.

I had exactly enough time to look at it and think:

That seems unhealthy.

Then the circle opened.

Black metal spikes began raining down.

Thousands.

Long.

Sharp.

Heavy.

They descended like someone had decided regular rain wasn’t sufficiently homicidal.

I threw one hand upward.

Magic surged.

A barrier appeared above me.

Solid.

Bright.

Strong enough that I had trusted similar defenses against plenty of attacks.

The first black spike reached it.

Passed straight through.

No resistance.

Nothing.

It didn’t crack the barrier.

Didn’t shatter it.

Didn’t even slow.

It simply went through as if the protection wasn’t there.

I stared.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

The spike hit beside me.

Stone shattered.

Another followed.

Then five.

Then twenty.

I moved.

Fast.

One struck my shoulder.

Pain burst through me.

Another grazed my side.

The barrier remained glowing uselessly overhead like an expensive umbrella full of holes.

I dropped it.

No point maintaining magical decoration.

I jumped aside.

Black spikes continued hammering into the ground.

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

The arena floor vanished beneath explosions of dust and stone.

I dodged left.

Right.

Forward.

Then I saw movement.

Rel.

Again.

Already close.

Her fist burned with fire.

“Seriously?”

She punched me directly in the face.

The world became orange.

Pain exploded across my jaw.

Then I was flying again.

Apparently today was sponsored by unwanted aviation.

I crashed into the ground.

Bounced.

Rolled.

A black spike hit beside my head.

Another pierced the stone near my ribs.

I pushed myself upward.

More came raining down.

Fine.

If dodging wasn’t enough, then defense needed an upgrade.

My skin changed.

Metal spread across my body.

Arms.

Chest.

Face.

Legs.

Within seconds, I was completely hardened.

The next spike hit my shoulder.

CLANG!

Pain still came.

Much less pleasant than I had hoped.

The metal body prevented the attack from piercing deeply, but the force behind every impact remained brutal.

A second hit my back.

CLANG!

A third struck my thigh.

CLANG!

I grunted.

“So that’s not immunity.”

Wonderful discovery.

Very useful.

Could’ve used a less violent experiment.

The rain continued.

I crouched and covered my head while metal hammered against metal.

Each impact sent vibration through my body.

My transformation held.

Barely comfortable.

But held.

Then finally the massive magic circle faded.

The last few spikes fell.

Silence returned.

Well.

Relative silence.

The crowd was screaming.

I remained crouched for a moment.

Smoke and dust drifted around me.

Black metal spikes covered the arena floor like someone had tried planting the world’s least welcoming garden.

I slowly stood.

Metal receded from my body.

Skin returned.

I rolled my shoulder.

Pain.

Jaw?

Pain.

Back?

More pain.

Great.

Excellent morning.

Across the arena, Rel approached.

Walking.

Not rushing.

Walking.

Her hands hung loosely at her sides.

Her breathing remained steady.

That same casual little smile sat on her face.

I stared.

“You know, when you called this exercise, I thought you were joking.”

“I rarely joke during exercise.”

“That’s disturbing.”

Rel kept approaching.

I lifted one hand.

Fine.

Her turn to experience inconvenience.

I reached for the skill she’d used at the start.

The structure was already there.

Clear in my mind.

Understood.

Ready.

Magic spread through the arena again.

“Stagnant Field.”

A white magic circle erupted beneath my feet.

It expanded.

Fast.

Runes spread across the entire arena floor until the same restrictive sensation settled into the space around us.

No Blink.

No short-range teleportation.

Rel stopped.

She looked down.

Then at me.

No surprise.

None.

That bothered me more than surprise would have.

Her smile deepened.

Not amused.

Satisfied.

Like a scientist had just watched the rat solve the maze exactly as predicted.

Ah.

There it was.

I narrowed my eyes.

“You knew.”

Rel said nothing.

She didn’t have to.

The answer was painted all over that irritatingly pleased face.

She had seen reports.

Agrus.

The generals.

My strange ability to reproduce things I shouldn’t know.

Maybe Rel had suspected the same thing Tanya had.

Maybe she didn’t know I was human specifically.

But she had a theory.

And now I’d just used her own skill minutes after seeing it once.

This fight wasn’t only Queen Firsa’s test.

Rel was testing me too.

Sneaky little tiger.

I smiled.

“You’re enjoying this way too much.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

“I have no idea what you mean.”

“Your face is basically holding a celebration.”

Rel laughed.

Fine.

Test accepted.

I rushed her.

The arena floor fractured behind me.

Light Buster ignited again.

I reached striking range and threw the first punch.

Rel tilted her head.

Miss.

The fist passed beside her cheek.

The explosion burst behind her.

She didn’t even flinch.

Second punch.

She raised one hand.

My glowing fist slammed into her palm.

BOOM!

Light exploded.

Dust burst outward.

Rel’s arm moved backward slightly.

That was it.

She blocked Light Buster.

With her palm.

I stared.

“Rude.”

I threw the third punch with my opposite hand.

Rel raised her other palm.

Impact.

BOOM!

Another explosion.

She blocked that too.

Now both of my fists were pressed against her hands.

Her smile changed.

Knowing.

Oh no.

I tried pulling back.

Nothing.

My hands wouldn’t separate.

Not from hers.

From each other.

Some kind of force had locked the position.

I pulled harder.

Still stuck.

Rel tilted her head.

“Problem?”

“I appear to have misplaced my ability to leave.”

“Unfortunate.”

She released my fists.

Not because she was being generous.

Because she was already moving.

Rel spun.

Wind wrapped around one leg.

The air screamed around her foot.

Then the kick hit my ribs.

WHAM!

I was launched sideways.

Again.

I hit the ground and slid through dust.

My hands finally separated.

I pushed up.

Rel already had one hand against the arena floor.

Black magic spread beneath her palm.

“Oh, not this again.”

Metal spikes erupted.

Not upward this time.

Forward.

They tore through the ground toward me in a rising wave.

A jagged black line crossed the arena at frightening speed.

I jumped.

Too low.

The spikes rose higher.

Fine.

New plan.

Magic gathered behind me.

White wings manifested.

Not Spriggan wings.

The broad magical wings I’d learned from Inizio’s flying horses.

I beat them once.

Air exploded beneath me.

I shot upward.

The metal spikes passed beneath my feet.

I climbed higher.

Rel looked up.

I smiled.

“Flight beats angry floor.”

She raised one finger.

A magic circle appeared above us.

White.

Huge.

It spread across the sky.

I stared.

“You have something for everything, don’t you?”

The circle flashed.

My wings vanished.

Not weakened.

Not damaged.

Gone.

One moment they existed.

The next, magic dissolved behind me.

Gravity immediately remembered our relationship.

I dropped.

“Oh, that’s cheating.”

Rel waved from below.

Very helpful.

I twisted in the air.

If I was falling anyway, might as well multitask.

I aimed one hand toward her.

Magic circles appeared.

One.

Two.

Three.

Heat erupted through the air.

Rel’s eyes narrowed.

Good.

Let’s see how much smiling survives this.

“Inferno Blast.”

Fire exploded from the circles.

The roar swallowed the arena.

A massive flood of flame surged downward.

It struck the ground around Rel and expanded across the fighting field.

Orange-white fire swallowed everything.

Stone blackened.

Air distorted.

Heat punched outward hard enough that spectators in the closest seats recoiled.

For several seconds, I couldn’t see Rel.

Couldn’t see the ground.

Couldn’t see anything except fire.

Then I landed.

Hard.

My boots struck stone.

I bent my knees and slid backward.

The inferno continued roaring in front of me.

Eventually the flames receded.

Smoke rolled across the arena.

I breathed.

My body hurt.

Not badly enough to stop.

But enough to remind me of something I’d almost forgotten during the road ambushes.

Those assassins had been weak compared with me.

Rel wasn’t.

Not even remotely.

I could learn quickly.

I could reproduce abilities.

I could adapt.

I could overwhelm people whose power couldn’t keep up.

But none of that magically erased the difficulty of fighting someone operating on this scale.

Someone with enormous strength.

Enormous magic.

Experience.

Control.

And enough tricks to make a magician look professionally insecure.

Fighting strong opponents was still hard.

Really hard.

Especially when the opponent knew exactly how to exploit mistakes.

Ten golden circles appeared around me.

I looked up.

“Right on schedule.”

Each circle produced a blade of light.

Ten glowing swords.

Then they fired.

All at once.

I raised both hands.

Wind gathered.

“Tempest Burst.”

A violent blast erupted around me.

The incoming swords struck the wind.

One shattered.

Then another.

Several were thrown off course.

Others broke apart inside the pressure.

Light fragments scattered across the arena.

I lowered my arms.

Movement inside the aftermath.

Rel.

She burst through the swirling dust.

One fist covered in dark energy.

I shifted my head.

Her punch missed my face by inches.

Good.

Then the dark energy around her fist twisted.

Pulled.

My body lurched toward it.

“What?”

The force dragged me sideways.

Rel’s missed punch had become a trap.

Naturally.

I dug one foot into the stone.

The ground cracked.

The pull increased.

I twisted away before she could follow with another strike.

Enough.

This was getting dangerous.

Not playful dangerous.

Actually dangerous.

I straightened.

“Okay.”

Rel watched me.

“I think we’ve reached the part where I stop being polite.”

Her smile widened.

I raised both fists.

Electricity erupted around them.

Thunder rolled across the arena.

Lightning wrapped my arms.

Blue-white energy snapped between my knuckles.

The crowd reacted.

I heard Remgar shouting something.

Probably encouragement.

Possibly restaurant-related financial concerns.

Didn’t matter.

“Thunder Assault.”

I moved.

Punch.

Lightning exploded.

Rel dodged.

Second punch.

Thunder cracked.

She shifted aside.

Third.

Fourth.

Fifth.

I unleashed a rapid combination, each strike carrying enough electrical force to blast apart the stone wherever it missed.

Rel moved between them.

Barely.

Her robe snapped around her.

Her eyes tracked every strike.

Then she smiled.

Not worried.

Of course.

Rel raised one hand.

Snapped her fingers.

Click.

The lightning disappeared.

All of it.

My fists returned to normal.

I stopped.

Stared.

“What.”

Rel jumped.

That was apparently my punishment for asking.

Dark energy spread over both of her arms.

She came down directly in front of me.

Two palms slammed into my chest.

The world compressed.

Then exploded.

Pain tore through my torso.

I flew backward with enough force that the air itself felt solid.

The arena spun.

Rel followed.

Fast.

Too fast.

While I was still flying, darkness gathered above one of her hands.

A sphere formed.

Small at first.

Then larger.

Black.

Not simply dark.

It seemed to swallow the light around it.

The air distorted.

Dust rose from the arena floor toward it.

Loose stones lifted.

My clothes pulled toward the sphere.

I stared.

“Oh, that’s definitely bad.”

Rel reached me.

Then slammed the black sphere down.

Into me.

At the exact same moment, the force inside it pulled.

I was dragged toward its center while Rel’s strike drove me downward.

Two directions.

One result.

Pain.

I hit the ground.

The sphere followed.

Then everything collapsed.

The arena floor caved inward.

Stone cracked.

Chunks of rock lifted and were dragged toward the black mass.

Dust vanished into it.

The ground compressed beneath me as if some invisible giant had decided I needed to become part of the foundation.

The roar was deafening.

My body screamed from every direction.

I couldn’t tell whether I was being crushed, pulled, slammed, or all three.

Probably all three.

Efficient attack.

Very Rel.

Then the black sphere collapsed.

Suddenly.

Silence.

Dust exploded outward.

Broken stone rained down.

For several seconds, I couldn’t hear properly.

Only ringing.

I lay inside a crater.

Deep one.

The sky above looked annoyingly peaceful.

Blue.

Bright.

Beautiful.

Completely disrespectful of the fact that I had just been assaulted by portable gravity.

I breathed.

Ow.

Again.

Still ow.

The crowd noise slowly returned.

Shouting.

Concern.

People were standing.

Some sounded genuinely alarmed.

I couldn’t blame them.

From where they sat, Rel had just driven me into the ground using an attack that converted a large section of arena into a crater.

That tended to look medically concerning.

Somebody shouted something.

Another voice answered.

The crowd became restless.

They probably thought she had killed me.

Honestly?

Reasonable conclusion.

But Rel knew better.

And I knew better.

One of us, however, had probably been hoping the attack would at least knock me unconscious.

I stayed on the ground.

One second.

Two.

Three.

Four.

My fingers moved.

Good.

Arms?

Painful.

Functional.

Legs?

Also functional.

Ribs?

Complaining aggressively but still participating in civilization.

I planted one hand against the broken stone.

Pushed.

Slowly.

My body rose.

The arena reacted immediately.

Noise exploded from the stands.

I climbed out of the crater.

Dust covered my clothes.

Blood ran from somewhere near my mouth.

My entire body hurt.

But I stood.

Across the destroyed section of arena, Rel watched me.

She was no longer completely relaxed.

Her breathing had changed.

Heavy.

Not exhausted.

But noticeably harder.

Finally.

Evidence she had lungs.

Her shoulders rose and fell.

The smile remained, but smaller now.

She looked at the crater.

Then me.

“I was hoping that would knock you out.”

I wiped blood from the corner of my mouth.

Looked at it.

Then at her.

“Fortunately for me…”

I rolled one shoulder.

Pain shot through it.

“…I survived the customer experience.”

Rel exhaled.

It almost became a laugh.

Then she sighed.

“That’s troublesome.”

“For you?”

“Yes.”

I grinned.

“Good.”

Rel straightened.

Her breathing remained heavy.

“It seems the fight becomes much harder for me from this point.”

That was interesting.

She had spent the opening controlling everything.

The floor.

The sky.

My Blink.

My wings.

My magic.

My position.

Even my Thunder Assault.

She had treated every option I used like a puzzle she’d already solved three minutes earlier.

But she had also spent a lot doing it.

Magic.

Movement.

Constant counters.

That last attack especially.

Powerful enough to carve a crater and temporarily convince an arena full of people that I had become a historical memory.

And I was still standing.

Hurting.

Very much hurting.

But standing.

I stretched my neck slowly.

One side cracked.

Then the other.

I looked directly at Rel.

Her golden eyes remained locked on mine.

The crowd gradually quieted again.

Even Firsa leaned forward from the royal section.

Leyra watched without blinking.

Remgar had stopped shouting.

Treez’s arms were no longer casually crossed.

Even Gia looked interested now.

Well.

Slightly interested.

For her, that was basically jumping onto a chair and cheering.

I raised my fists.

Rampage still burned inside me.

Berserker Aura still filled my body with violent strength.

I had plenty left.

And Queen Firsa’s instruction returned clearly.

Don’t hold back.

I smiled.

“I was told not to hold back.”

My stance lowered.

Power gathered around me again.

“So I won’t.”